Zombie Island Wiki:Style guide
This style guide has the simple purpose of making the Zombie Island Wiki easy to read by establishing a certain format. One way is often as good as another, but if everyone does things the same way, the articles will be easier to read and use, along with being easier to write and edit. Reading the style guide is important to ensure that each user's edits will be consistent with those of other users. Article titles Pages must have appropriate titles. Names, locations, and titles (like a building) should all be capitalised, though not the whole title. Block capitals should not be used in titles (e.g. 'Article titles' instead of 'ARTICLE TITLES'). An exception is acronyms in disambiguation page titles, which should be in block capitals. Try to make the article's topic the subject of the first sentence in the article. For example, write "This style manual is a style guide" instead of "This style guide is known as..." Use boldface ( in the edit tool bar) for the first (and only the first) appearance of the title. Articles about items, tasks, trophies, and non-player characters should be titled exactly as the subject's name appears in-game. A rule of thumb for article titles is that items only have the first letter of the first word in their name capitalised for the most part; exceptions to this rule exist. There is no capitalization convention for non-player characters. Unless the character's name has more than one capital in-game, do not put a capital at the beginning of every word. This is a common mistake which often causes broken links and time being diverted to moving these pages. If you are in doubt about a name, please check it in-game. If you come across a page with an incorrect title, please move it to the correct title and edit it to make the correct title consistent. If a page's title conflicts with its content, make the content consistent with the title before checking in-game to ensure accuracy. However, this rule should not be followed blindly and applied for every single subject encountered in the game. Due to the technical restrictions which exist in the software. In cases where the in-game name is ambiguous, disambiguation is necessary, such as *insert example here*, the item. Words such as articles and short prepositions in titles should be left un-capitalised, unless they are intended to be capitalised in Zombie Island. These include words such as 'a', 'the', and 'of'. Sections and headings Separating articles into sections makes them easy to read and navigate. Headings are used to split articles into sections. Markup Use two equal signs ( ) style markup for headings. Start with , add the heading title, then end with . This section's heading was created with the markup: : Sections and headings This subsection's heading was created with the markup: : Markup Wording * In a heading, capitalise only the first letter of the first word and the first letter of any proper nouns, and leave all of the other letters in lowercase. * Avoid putting links in headings. * Make sure that the heading has an appropriate and accurate title, as this is important to help readers navigate the article. * Keep headings short. Lead sections A lead (introduction) summarises the most important points of an article, creating interest in the topic. Thus, it should be limited to a few paragraphs. Certain information, such as strategies and trivia, should be in a separate section instead of in the lead. This applies only to articles that are of sufficient length to incorporate a lead. Text elements Font colours Coloured font can be used sparingly, though not in very bright colours. For example, you can use a dark colour for a warning. Note that light colours will not show up well against the article's white background. Invisible comments Invisible comments are used to communicate with other editors in the article body. To do so, enclose the text which you intend to be read only by editors within . For example, using will be hidden in the article. Bulleted lists Bulleted lists can be used in quest walkthroughs and lists. For example, you can use bullets if you're listing what levels to train a certain skill or locations of an item. Do not forget proper punctuation. To add bullets, put an asterisk (*) before the name. For example: * List name 1 * List name 2 ** Sub-list would come out as: * List name 1 * List name 2 ** Sub-list Numbered lists All the rules for bulleted lists apply also to numbered lists. Numbered lists can be used for listing steps in a process. To add a numbered list, put a number sign (#) before the list name. For example: # List name 1 # List name 2 # List name 3 would come out as: # List name 1 # List name 2 # List name 3 Bold and italics Place two apostrophes (Italicised text, or in the edit tool bar) on either side of a selection of text to italicise the selection. Italics are mainly used to emphasise certain words, though they should be used sparingly. Also note that the word Zombie Island should always be italicised. Italics may make longer phrases or sentences difficult to read. Place three apostrophes (Boldfaced text) on either side of a selection of text to boldface the selection. Bold is used as a stronger emphasis than italics, although it should be used sparingly as well. The first appearance of an article's title in the article should always be boldfaced. Place five apostrophes (Boldfaced and italicised text) on either side of a selection to use bold and italics in combination on the selection. Bold and italics combined emphasise selections well, but should be used extremely rarely. There are no common cases in which bold and italics are used together. As you can see, bold works well to emphasise sentences as well as short phrases and single words, while italics are a much weaker emphasis for sentences, but work well on short phrases or single words. Bold and italics are used in combination very rarely. Excessive use of any of these text elements will make the entire article difficult to read, so please use them in appropriate situations. Grammar and spelling Case * Other things should have common sense applied on a case by case basis. Normally, it should be easy to work out what to do. Abbreviations Try not to use abbreviations. Some players may not know what these abbreviations mean. And, as far as looks go, it's much more pleasing to the eye to look at. This wiki's preferred language is British English, not numbers. Punctuation If you are listing multiple things, like different runes, each of them should have a serial comma at the end.. Usage and spelling * The I'' in ''Zombie Island is capitalised. Zombie Island should also be italicised. * In general, British spelling should be used at all times. Almost everything in Zombie Island uses the British spelling, making this rule easy to follow; however, exceptions do exist, and in-game spelling should be used in favour of British spelling in those cases. Common examples for British spellings include: ** Analyse instead of analyze ** Any more instead of anymore ** Armour instead of armor ** Artefact instead of artifact ** Behaviour instead of behavior ** Capitalise instead of capitalize ** Centre instead of center ** Colour instead of color ** Defence (and offence) instead of defense (and offense) ** Dialogue instead of Dialog ** Duelling instead of dueling ** Got instead of gotten ** Grey instead of gray ** Honour instead of honor ** Humour instead of humor ***But humorous instead of humourous ** Jewellery instead of jewelry ** Licence is the noun. License is the verb. The same goes for practice and practise ** Rumour instead of'' rumor'' ** Storey instead of story (plural: storeys instead of stories) as in first storey, second storey, etc. Not "short storey." ** Tradeable (and untradeable) instead of tradable ** Travelled (and levelled) instead of traveled ** Worshipped and worshipper instead of worshiped and worshiper * For directions and compounds, hyphens should be included. For example: ** South-west instead of southwest ** North-east instead of northeast ** Counter-attack instead of counterattack Notable Exceptions; See also: American and British English spelling differences and variations Common grammatical errors then and than :Despite their pronunciations being very similar, they are different in meaning. :Then is used in one of the three following cases: ::1. at that time; at the time in question. ::: I was living in Cairo then. ::2. after that; next; afterward ::: She won the first and then the second game. ::3. in that case; therefore ::: If you do what I tell you, then there's nothing to worry about. ::: Well, that's okay, then. :Than is used in comparing two elements in a sentence, or in expressions introducing exceptions or contrasts. ::He was much smaller than his son. ::He claims not to own anything other than his home. its and it's :Its is the possessive adjective and possessive pronoun form of the personal pronoun it. ::He chose this area for its atmosphere. :On the other hand, it's is a contraction (shortcut) for it is OR it has. ::it is - It's my fault. ::it has - It's been a hot day. their, there, '''and '''they're :Their is possessive, referring to an object, or objects, belonging to a certain number of people. ::The ball is their property. :There is an adverb, referring to a certain position or area. ::We went on to Paris and stayed there eleven days. :They're can also be confused with their and there. They're is a contraction for they are and they were, depending on how the sentence is constructed. ::The reason that they're going to the store is to buy more milk. should of :The reason people write "should of" when they mean should have is because the contraction of should have (should've) is pronounced like "should of." Avoid "should of" like the plague. Instead, write "should have." ::Those rookie editors made the mistake of writing 'should of' when they meant 'should have'. amount and number :Amount refers to a quantity that can be measured. Number refers to a quantity that can be counted. ::Higher levels require a greater amount of experience. much and many :As in the above example, much refers to a quantity that can be measured. Many refers to a quantity that can be counted. ::How much total experience do you have? affect and effect :One thing may affect (or change) another. The result of an action is its effect or effects. Also, to effect is to produce. your and you're :The word your is the possessive form of the word you. :The word you're is a contraction of the words you are. other and others :Other refers to the other one or the one not previously referenced. This form is singular. ::Where is your other cake? :Others refers to those remaining after one or more have been excluded. This is the plural form of other. ::Two heroes hid under the rocks, while the others were killed. ::I kept the arrows and threw away all the others. Point of view Articles should be written in the third person or objective point of view. Using the word "you" in articles is informal and should be avoided except if it is inside a quotation; try to use "players" or "the player" instead. For guides, "you" can be used. References and citations References or footnotes are notes which appear after a section of text and are linked with a specific part of the text. They are used for long explanations which cannot be worked into the paragraph naturally and for citations. Non-citation references should only be used sparingly, however references used as citations can be used as often as necessary. Detailed usage and syntax instructions can be found on the main article. Images Some general guidelines which should be followed are listed below. * Right-alignment is preferred to left- or centre-alignment. However, centre-alignment can be used for some images in the quest pages, such as the reward picture. * If there are too many images in a given article, consider making a gallery with a level two heading. * Use captions to explain the relevance of the image to the article. * Make large images a thumbnail. * Specifying the size of a thumbnail image is not recommended. * Icon clickpics may be used in lists and tables, but not in paragraph form. Uploading images * The preferred formats for images are PNG. * Images of items should have a transparent background. * Personal images which are only used on a User page should not be uploaded. Images should be able to be used on mainspace articles, else they will be deleted. * Please name your files descriptively to avoid confusion.. * Don't upload images we already have. We have many users doing this and it is not good to have multiple images of the same item! Before you upload an image, search the wiki if someone has already uploaded a version of it. Captions Complete sentences in captions should always end in a full stop (period). If the caption is not a complete sentence, it generally should not have a full stop at the end. Captions should also not be italicised. Wiki-linking * Every time an article is mentioned on the page, you don't have to link to every single one. For example, xp may be mentioned five times. You only have to link to xp once. You can link to articles more than once if the page is very long. * Piped link formats for simple plurals are generally unnecessary. For example, use levels instead of levels. * On the other hand, use wolves instead of wolfs when appropriate. Don't be afraid to use a piped link when necessary, particularly if avoiding them contorts the language unnecessarily or introduces spelling or grammatical errors into the article. Piped links have legitimate uses in an article. * When including wiki-links in an article, there is no need to use capitalisation or underscores, since the software produces them automatically. * Do not place the last letters of a plural outside of a link that already has alternate text. For example, anti-aliasing artefacts should be used instead of anti-aliasing artefacts. Writing articles Everyone is encouraged to contribute meaningfully to the wiki. Ownership and bias * Keep personal bias out of articles. We do not need to hear it in the articles. * Nobody owns articles. This is a wiki, after all. This means words like "I", "we," or "me" should not be included in articles. * Do not include specific usernames of players or groups of players in articles, unless they highlight specific historical events or achievements. These should be kept relevant, and should be supported well, with an external link. * Do not try and claim "facts" such as "player x was the first to complete this task" without any verifiable proof. Facts and trivia If you have a piece of information or trivia that you would like to add to an article, yet are unsure of its accuracy, leave a note on the talk page of the article so that all editors can discuss it. Do not engage in edit wars on the article page. Numbers For numbers, a comma should be used as a thousands separator. Zombie Island uses a comma in the main interface as well as other areas Dates Use the day before month format (dd/mm/yyyy - 1 May 2008) rather than the month before day format (mm/dd, yyyy - May 1, 2008). Note that no commas are used in the day before month format. Most of the world uses the day before month format. :See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers) as well as Calendar date. External links Feel free to link to other sites, such as the Facebook. However, you may want to avoid linking to other fansites, unless it has exceptional content that cannot be reproduced here or because of copyrights. See also * Category:Policies - a full list of policies for this Wiki.